Gasoline is defined as a complex mixture of hydrocarbons that is used as fuel for internal combustion engines. Gasoline manufactured today is derived from petroleum and is used in automobile, aircraft, marine engines and small engines designed for miscellaneous end-uses. The composition and characteristics of gasoline vary with the source, manufacturing method and end-use requirement of the product.
Gasoline was initially produced by the simple distillation of crude oil. The types of hydrocarbons found in such "straight-run" gasolines include paraffins, aromatics and naphthenes (e.g., cycloparaffins). The number of carbon atoms in the hydrocarbon fraction, molecules falling within the gasoline boiling range, is usually from about C.sub.4 to C.sub.12.
Today, gasoline is produced in petroleum refineries by a plurality of processes. For example, fractional distillation is still used as one refinery method for gasoline production. However, the gasoline mixtures so produced are usually low in octane content and are therefore normally supplemented with gasolines produced by other methods to increase the octane content.
Other production methods include pyrolytic cracking wherein higher molecular weight hydrocarbons, such as those in gas oils, are either catalytically cracked or thermally cracked. Reforming is used to upgrade low-octane gasoline fractions into higher octane components by use of a catalyst. Alkylation of C.sub.3 and C.sub.4 olefins with isobutane is also practiced to provide a high octane content gasoline source.
Polymer gas or polygas is an olefinic gasoline blending component resulting from a polymerization process. Several polymerization processes exist (Nelson, Petroleum Refining Engineering, 4th Edition, pp. 700-701, 722-735), including thermal polymerization of cracked still gases (C.sub.3 -C.sub.5) or acid catalyzed, either phosphoric or sulfuric acid, polymerization of similar feedstocks. Additionally, another commercially important "Polygas" process involves passing the feedstock over a diatomaceous earth impregnated with phosphorus pentoxide.
A process referred to as dimerization is used to combine hydrocarbon fractions, such as butenes and propylene, to form higher molecular weight branched hydrocarbons, such as isoheptenes. Gasoline produced by this process is referred to as "dimate" gasoline. The process frequently uses phosphoric acid as a catalyst.
Stripper gasoline is obtained by a process that uses steam injected into a fractionator column with the steam providing the heat needed for separation. The gasoline can come from either a hydrodesulfurizer (HDS) unit or a fluidized catalytic cracking (FCC) unit. Normally, stripper gasoline from a FCC unit is highly unstable and only small percentages thereof can be blended with a more stable gasoline product in order to obtain the final motor fuel product.
Additionally, isomerization is used to convert low octane paraffins into branched chain isomers with higher octane.
Despite the particular method of production, gasolines generally suffer from oxidative degradation. That is, upon storage, gasoline can form gummy, sticky resin deposits that adversely affect combustion performance. Further, such oxidative degradation may result in undesirable color deterioration.
The need for stabilizing treatment is even more acute in those gasolines in which acidic contaminants are present. For example, the presence of naphthenic acids in gasolines contributes to instability. Naphthenic acid is a general term that is used to identify a mixture of organic acids present in petroleum stock or obtained due to the decomposition of the naphthenic or other organic acids. As is used in the art, the acid neutralization number (mg KOH/gm) (as per ASTM D 664) is a quantitative indication of the acids present in the hydrocarbon. Oftentimes, known gasoline stabilizers, such as the phenylenediamines lose effectiveness in such acidic gasoline mediums. There is a need to provide such stabilization treatment in those gasolines having an acid neutralization number of 0.1 or greater and such treatment is especially desirable when the acid neutralization number is even higher (i.e., 0.15 or greater).